Confusion as Niger Screens Political Appointees

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Confusion reigns supreme as over 4,000 political appointees in Niger State stormed the Government House in Minna for the verification of their appointments.

The verification of the letters of appointments followed the discovery of equal number of ghost political appointees on the payroll of the government.

The state Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, according to findings, personally discovered the inflation of the number of appointees he made and therefore asked for the verification. The appointments were said to have been increased from 3,000 to 8,000 appointees.

As a result of the insertion of ghost appointees on the payment voucher it was learnt that the government must have lost close to N1.6billion monthly which made the governor to raise the eyebrow and asked for the investigation.

The verification is being conducted by the man the governor put in charge of the issuance of appointment letters to the appointees.

Each of the appointees was asked to present his/her letter of appointments, their BVNs as well as the last bank payment slip.

When the auditing started last Wednesday, it was a rowdy session at the government house, a development that made the Deputy Governor, Yakubu Garba, to intervene by  urging the “appointees” to remain patient and go through the exercise with decorum.

However, when the man in charge of the verification, Kabiru Shehu, appeared at the government house, he was booed and was almost lynched but for the intervention of government house security.

The verification was therefore abruptly stopped without any notification of when the exercise will recommence.

The Special Adviser Political and Strategy  to Governor Bago, Alhaji Nma Kolo, confirmed to THISDAY that auditing of political appointees was directed because of the inflation in their numbers.

Assuring them that salaries of the appointees will be paid as soon as they are verified, Nma Kolo said the exercise was necessitated by some civil servants also collecting salaries of political appointees.